Creating Colonial Pasts: History, Memory, and Commemoration in Southern Ontario, 1860-1980

Description

Creating Colonial Pasts explores the creation of history and memory in Southern Ontario through the experience of its inhabitants| especially those who took an active role in the preservation and writing of Ontario’s colonial past: the founder of the Niagara Historical Society| Janet Carnochan; twentieth-century Six Nations historians Elliott Moses and Milton Martin; and Celia B. File| high-school teacher and historian of Mary Brant.

Examining the grand narratives of colonial Ontario – the Loyalists| the War of 1812| and the creation of settler society – Cecilia Morgan argues that place played an important role in shaping memory and narrative in locations such as Niagara-on-the-Lake| the Six Nations territory at the Grand River| and the Mohawk community at Tyendinaga. Illuminating the pivotal role of women and Indigenous people in historical commemoration and uncovering the existence of a lively and interconnected circle of historians and heritage activists in late nineteenth and twentieth-century Ontario| Creating Colonial Pasts is a virtuoso study of history-making.